So, it’s about time I wrote about July now. It being September and all that…

Well, the early part of the month was lovely in a local Munich way. You know, meals and drinks with friends. Christoph’s 50th birthday was an early highlight. There was a tasty barbecue with my French demoiselles at Béné’s place. And of course Stammtisch at the Kloster.

And then it was time to fly to Spain! Yippee! I SO TOTALLY love that country. Even if, as on this occasion, my holiday starts with a killer five-hour drive from Madrid to Seville. But even that turned out to be fabulous in the end, because I was just driving into Seville as the sun was setting, so I got to enjoy golden skies, inky black silhouettes, and the white skyline of the city all in pinks and purples. Fabulous.

In Seville I caught up with Pete from Melbourne, and for the next week we had a whale of a time travelling all over the place and generally living life to the tapas-fuelled full. On the Sunday we did Seville on foot, on Monday we hit Cádiz and ended the day in Jérez with a tour round the sherry bodega of Tío Pepe followed by incredible arroz negro in a bar just near the main square.

On Tuesday we saw an amazing horse & carriage display at the Andalusian Equestrian School and then drove off to Portugal, where we stopped in the delightful little seaside resort of Tavira. We hit the beach at this jewel of the Algarve the next day, then drove up and into the centre of Portugal to visit the UNESCO World Heritage town of Évora. Such beauty! Followed by a mad night dash to Badajoz, so I wouldn’t have to attempt to speak Portuguese when booking accommodation (what a coward I am!).

Badajoz showed us its delights on Thursday morning, but I was much more impressed by Cáceres, which is a truly gorgeous mediaeval town on a hill. My mouth was made happy there too, with a huge plate of pungent meats, sausages and cheese. Oh yeah! Then we drove on to Salamanca, where I hadn’t been for almost 20 years. But the place is just as lovely as I remember it. We found ourselves a cute little hotel right in the centre, then went exploring in the evening light. Marvellous.

Friday was a day of milling about Salamanca in no particular hurry, just soaking the place up. We strolled out to the main station and back into the old town, passing through the gigantic Plaza Mayor with a pause for people-watching, before heading on over the ancient bridge and walking along the river, gazing with satisfaction at the spires and towers of the city across the water. There is so much to see there, I can’t do it justice in this abbreviated blog. Just go there yourself! You’ll love it. And you’ll love the sangría at Bar Libre. Find it. It’s worth it.

On Saturday I bade farewell to Pete and took myself off to Ávila – another fabulous fabulous hilltop town, this one with perfect city walls right round – before reaching my final destination, Madrid. I left the car at the airport and then headed into the centre of town to enjoy one last evening of Spanish fiesta feeling, before flying home the next day. (I just had a big sigh thinking about how amazing that week was!)

But I had no time to wallow in memories, because no sooner had I reached Munich than Rainnie turned up again too! We had a cheeky beer at the Nockherberg before heading to Mama again for Vietnamese goodness with Christian and then coffee and gin & tonics at mine. She shot off by train for foreign climes the next morning...

The rest of the week was enjoyable too, in a I-live-and-work-really-centrally-in-a-cool-city kind of way: lunch and dinner with different people pretty much every day, plus a spot of table tennis with Sabine at the table by the river just outside my office. The crowning event of the week, though, was Lydia’s birthday party in Karlsfeld. The weather had turned shite again, but that didn’t stop us from having a fabulous time drinking beer and roasting a whole pig. And then I headed to Martin & Barbara’s double birthday party in Pasing. Life’s good!

The last week of July was good, but once again it was the weekend that made it. I flew to Amsterdam with Béné and we were met off the plane by Kim & Linda, and then later by Rainnie, who’d got the train over from Hamburg. The weekend was a truly delightful and delicious one with all of my (okay, Béné’s really, but they’re mine now too) Amsterdam Frenchies. The afternoon at the Brouwerij t’IJ and the barbecue at Nath & Marcel’s were so cool. So was the couple of hours wandering around the centre of Amsterdam with Rainnie and the picnic by the river to play boules with Dutch stoners and drink red wine in the setting sun.

And, before we cared to know it, it was time to fly home. I’m really glad we decided to stay the extra night and fly home on the Monday morning, because it meant we could really enjoy Sunday to the full (even squeezing in a cheeky return visit to Canvas op de 7de) without stressing about getting to the airport. And then, at Schiphol, it was time to hug Rainnie for the last time on her Europe tour, as she was flying home to Australia that very day. See you again soon, I hope, gorgeous girl!